"Truth in Charity" - Issues of the day, upcoming events, news, & pictures. (This blog is NOT an official blog of the Diocese of Harrisburg. All posts and comments are simply the opinions, ideas, thoughts, attitudes and beliefs of the individual posters.)

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About Me

I am a Deacon for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg. In addition, I am the Program Director for Pennsylvania's pregnancy support and parenting education program administered by our non-profit company, Real Alternatives.

The personal motto of a prelate has always been intended to represent his personal spirituality and theologically-based philosophy of life. Bishop Rhoades' episcopal motto, VERITATEM IN CARITATE, translates into English as "Truth in Charity." As rector of Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary, he steadfastly encouraged future priests to always be faithful in proclaiming and living the truth of the Gospel in charity.The words of this motto are found in Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “let us proclaim the truth in charity and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head” (4:15).The Second Vatican Council stated, “Christ continually provides in his body, that is, in the Church, for gifts of ministries through which, by his power, we serve each other unto salvation so that, carrying out the truth in charity, we may through all things grow unto him who is our head” (Lumen Gentium 7).The Second Vatican Council also stated, “All Christians are earnestly to speak the truth in charity and join with all peace-loving people in pleading for peace and trying to bring it about” (Gaudium et Spes 78).

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Friday, October 3, 2008

Catholics for Obama? - Michael Novak

"Not long before he was elected pope (overwhelmingly), Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger sent a public rebuke to the U.S. bishops. He reminded them that the question of abortion must be judged in a far different category from war and capital punishment. War is a question of practical wisdom, he observed, about which prudent Catholics may form opposing practical judgments. Same with capital punishment, which for centuries was rated by the church as just and sometimes necessary. By contrast abortion, Ratzinger wrote, is “intrinsically evil” and “always and everywhere” to be opposed."

. . .

"Despite the fact that Cardinal Ratzinger, not to mention John Paul II, forcefully reminded Catholics of their duty not to cooperate with the evil of abortion, many Catholic leftists continue to cite the same American bishops who were rebuked by the cardinal and the pope. Why, moreover, do these leftists argue from “the consistent ethic of life”? Under the flag of “consistency” they are able to put virtually every issue dear to them on the scales. The result is to downgrade the real, distinctive, sui generis evil of abortions, which are now performed at a rate of about 1.1 million a year. They put equal emphasis on capital punishment and the “unjust war in Iraq” — the very thing Cardinal Ratzinger said they cannot in good conscience do."